[1] Born in Combremont-le-Petit, Switzerland on April 22, 1794, the son of Jean Pierre Vioget and Jeanne Suzanne Meister (or Meystre).
In the 1820s he served in the Brazilian navy, rising to the rank of captain, and engaging in the maritime trade in South America.
Vioget first arrived in San Francisco, then known as Yerba Buena, in 1837, when only two homes stood in the village - those of Jacob P. Leese and William A. Richardson.
In 1839 Governor Juan B. Alvarado ordered a survey of Yerba Buena, and the alcalde, Francisco Guerrero, employed Vioget to do the work.
[4] Vioget's survey covered the area that is now San Francisco's Financial District and featured a grid made of trapezoidal blocks.